45’-60’ 2015 or newer Shaft Drive yacht recommendations

You might find the Powerboat Guide useful. The softcopy version is keyword-searchable...

-Chris

Look @ Ferretti group boats in your preferred size range .
Plenty of choices of straight simple reliable shafts .

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I have 2009 Zeus hooked to Cummins. I have had no issues, I am on schedule with maintenance and seals but my next boat will be shaft. I like the set up, the use, pretty shallow draft, but I am concerned that aging Zeus pods may be a resale liability.

I have noted, as you have, this size boat is almost always VP IPS

The Prestige line does offer shaft v drive in some of their lineup so don’t give up on that option.

55' Princess, Sunseeker 52' or 55', 60' Hatteras to name a few. You'll get 30% better fuel economy on a pod boat and a lot more interior volume IF the builder took advantage of it.

What’s the reason for better fuel economy? Why ?

Better fuel economy is related to several aspects: Drives produce their thrust horizontally, no rudders aft of the props, less stuff in the way of water towards the props, counter-rotating pair of props on the pods (therefor less losses of efficiency due to less to no rotation in the flow of water behind the pods).

The straight thrust angle from them, drag, etc. Generally a 450hp POD is equivalent to around a 600HP straight inboard.

How about that…that is a lot of Hp difference.

Its a big misguided this number as used here and in marketing schemes by Volvo.
It is possible but for that to happen the IPS boat will need to have a very flat Vee buttom and hull designed for the propulsion from fore to aft.
Which if you do the same for a shaft boat the difference will in the region of 5%.

So like with like you are looking at 10% real gain with an IPS boat in fuel economy so speed gains.

Very flat V bottom? Can you describe a model or some degrees of V you are referring to?

The preferred angle for an IPS boat is about 12/13 degrees deadrise (medium Vee) closing aft. But what is important is also to forward of the IPS pod to about three meters (ten feet) it is suggested you do not go more then twenty degrees.
While twelve degrees closing aft is no deal, many sportfish as Hatteras and Viking always close in these numbers, they tend to be pretty deep further and you can throw many rough seas to them.
But with IPS boats you will see that many tend to also rather flat Vee even forward. Possibly the only exception being triple IPS boats like the Azimut S series.

In my IPS installation guide from Volvo Penta they say from 13-24 degrees deadrise...

Interesting stuff...but I will always take the shaft....drive boat that is. It's stuff I know and can work on myself. Dealers of any kind and Cleanslate don't mix.

My installation guidebook is not new, so they may have changed this today, I don't know. But we had a hard time to get our hull accepted by VP, probably because it would also work well with Zeus at the time... And yes, the drives are in a 5 degree angle.

But again, this is not what VP recommended and not what most other brands are doing, most of them are using their existing hulls without modifications for IPS and most of these are getting a lot better performance figures than with straight shafts...

In Swedish.. ;-)

The closest head to head comparison I know of, is the 40' Cabo, with 600HP zues it was 1 knot faster at cruise and WOT than 800hp MAN's and shafts. 45 gph versus 62 gph at cruise.

The 40' Cabo's ride the same with pods or shafts. The hull was modified where the pods are mounted I believe. I think the comparison on the same boat is the most accurate. The Zues boat with 600hp diesels is 1 knot faster than the MAN boat with 800 HP diesels.......45 GPH versus 62 GPH at same cruise speec (within a knot) is pretty impressive.

It's like the only direct comparison of Arnesons versus Jets I know of is that 68' Azimut built.

2 different boats can perform TOTALLY differently even same size/type/displacement due to hull design. Some are simply much faster (and efficient) than others with the same power.